This is Our Story
by vinny2
Summary: Rikku is able to save Tidus from falling of the salvage ship. She gets him to Luca, but now she has to make sure he he makes out okay. This had become their story, but a summoner and her guardians may change that. Will Tidus accept his destined position defending Yuna, or does his loyalty to his one and only friend in Spira prove stronger than destiny?


Chapter 1: Okay, leave it to me. I'll get you to Luca, promise!

There was chaos everywhere. From the moment the scaly fin made its appearance above water, a steady stream of Al-bheds were rushing out from below deck and manning whatever station needed to be manned. Tidus just stood in the middle of it, wondering if there was anything he could be doing, or if there was anything he was expected to be doing.

Tidus didn't see Rikku anywhere, and the fin was causing the waves to swell, which in turn caused the ship to rock furiously. Tidus looked back, only to see that the fin had once again submerged. He ran the edge, his hands white-knuckling the railing as he desperately searched the waters for any sign that the fin was to return. Sure enough, a torrent of water reintroduced the fin. The reappearance of the fin flooded the deck of the ship, and the sheer force ripped Tidus from the railing and washed him to the edge of the ship.

Desperately, Tidus grasped at the air, hoping to grab onto something, but his descent into the dark unknown seemed all but certain. In seconds, he was flying off the edge of the ship, reaching up into the air in a vain attempt to prevent his descent.

Tidus failed to grasp anything, but something grasped him. Rather, someone. Tidus looked up to see that familiar red jumpsuit holding onto his wrist with one hand and holding on the railing with the other, and her grip on the latter was precarious. Even with a mask one Tidus could plainly see the pain and effort Rikku was expending just to keep a grip on both.

Tidus looked around. It was dark, but he could see a window near his leg. He swung once and managed to get a footing and grabbed onto the ledge with his free right hand. Rikku released Tidus and immediate transferred the hand on the railing and pulled herself up. Now safely on deck, Rikku used both hands to help Tidus make the climb back on deck with her.

Tidus breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down and rested along one of the machines. He was out of breath, and he sat silently as he surveyed the deck. Everything was quiet now. Sin was gone, at least for the moment. Four Al-Bhed were on deck, including Rikku. They all still appeared to be defensive, as if the danger was still present.

Rikku came back to where Tidus was sitting. "It'll come back," she said.

"What do we do?"

"We don't do anything," said replied. "This is a salvage ship. We don't have anywhere near the technology we would need to defend outside, and we certainly can't outrun it. We just need to sit tight until we're sure Sin has left."

"So we just sit up here and hope for the best?" He asked with a touch of fear back in his voice.

"Not here," she said. "Certainly not up here, not after that little episode on the ledge. If Sin comes back, on deck is the last place you want to be. Come on. Brother doesn't want me to bring you inside, but I'm sure there is somewhere I can stash you where he won't see you. At least you'll be out of the way. I still have to convince him to drop you off in Luca, anyways."

Rikku pulled him up by the sleeve and led him to the door. She pressed a button on the side that Tidus had not previously seen and led him down the stairs and through a narrow corridor and finally to an elevator. The doors shut behind them, and the elevator shaft was plunged into near total darkness. "Yeah. That happens," she said without having to be asked. "After a while, you get to know where all the button are." She pressed something, and the elevator began to slowly move. Tidus couldn't really tell how small the elevator was. He knew he was standing near the wall, and he knew he was starting particularly close to Rikku. He wasn't sure if she was standing so close for a reason, or because the elevator was just that small.

The elevator stopped, and opened up to another corridor, this one with several doors on either side. "These are the cabins," she said. "I don't think there are any empty on this ship." She paused and mused over what the next move should be. "Just in case, you should probably just hide out in my cabin."

"Your brother won't mind you having a boy in your room?"

"I have boys in my room all the time," she replied immediately. It was only after she spoke that she processed the question and came forward with a more thought-out answer. "That didn't come out right. What I meant to say was, my brother isn't the boss of me. Now just stay put here and I'll be right back."

Rikku led him into the first door on the right and closed the door behind her. The room was dimly lit, and there was nothing inside except a bed and a chest. Tidus could see nothing but darkness though the tiny window. He just sat on the bed, looking back and forth between the chest on the ground and the door, half-expecting Rikku to come barging in at any moment. Finally, he laid down and made himself comfortable.

He thought about the events of the day and just how close he came to losing his life at Sin's hand. Then again, he had been completely in Sin's grasp when he attacked Zanarkand, and it just dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that's what Sin had come for. "Did he come for me?" Tidus openly mused. "Auron would probably think so. Then again, I never really understood anything that guy was saying."

Tidus pushed all of his thoughts about Auron and Sin as far away from his consciousness as he possibly could. As he did so, he slowly began to drift off into a nice, well-deserved slumber.

He dreamt. He dreamt that he was back in Zanarkand, back on his houseboat with dozens of adorning fans just camped out waiting for him to step out as he did every morning at just this time. It was all a very well-prepared act. He knew they were there and he knew they were waiting for him. He would just step out as if he were on a leisurely stroll, and he would be shocked at the swarm of fans trying to get close to him without actually stepping foot onto his property. Of course, Tidus would greet them and, if he felt like it, come on over and sign some autographs. He was just kind and generous that way.

This morning, Auron was there. He was standing at the room, preventing Tidus from stepping out and greet his adoring fans. "I need to go outside," Tidus insisted.

"You can't," he replied. "It's not safe outside. Don't you remember what happened last time you were on the deck of a ship?"

"You mean the Al-Bhed ship?" Tidus asked. "That was so long ago. I barely even remember it."

"You fell."

"Rikku caught me."

"You fell," he repeated, as if he had not heard Tidus.

"Hey!" This time, it was Rikku's voice. His eyes popped open and he suddenly felt a piercing headache. He quickly saw why. He was on the floor.

"You fell," Rikku said. Tidus just looked at her as he rubbed the back of his head. "Come on," he continued as she helped him up. "Sin is gone for now. Brother thinks you're bad luck, so he's agreed to drop you off in Luca."

Tidus nodded and followed Rikku back into the elevator. The lights were on this time, and Tidus could plains see that the elevator could comfortably fit at least ten people. They rode up to the deck and Rikku led him to the railing. The sunrise was a bewitching sight.

"You don't get to see the sunrise like this in Zanarkand," Tidus said before remembering. "Oh. I'm not supposed to talk about Zanarkand, right?"

"Right," Rikku scolded. "Remember. It's some kind of holy place. At least that's what Yevon says."

"Who's Yevon?"

"You don't know?" Tidus was getting irritated about just how much he didn't know. "Well, I don't know all that much about it either, but I know enough to know it's not a who. It's a what. Yevon is a belief. Everyone in Spira believes in Yevon. Everyone except the Al-Bhed."  
"Why not?"

"Because Yevon doesn't allow the use of machina. It says it brings strife. That it brings Sin."

"Machina?"

"Yeah. Machina. The machines. All of this. That thing we activated. That's all machina. All forbidden by Yevon. The Al-Bhed think that's just superstitious nonsense. Machina makes everything better. We can tell that Sin is gone because we have machina that detects movement in the water."

"How did Sin sneak up on us, then?"

"That was my fault," a male voice said from behind them. Tidus turned and saw the young man standing by the door. "Name's Buddy," he said. "I was supposed to be watching the radar. I left my station to grab a snack."

"Buddy."

"Hey," he defended. "I was hungry. You can't blame a guy for being hungry."

"I can and I do," Rikku replied. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be watching the radar now?"

"I got someone covering for me this time. So, we're going to Luca?"

"No," Rikku said. "He's going to Luca. We have work to do."

"Wait," Tidus replied. "You're not coming with me?"

"I thought you knew," Rikku replied with a hint of remorse in her voice. "I guess I shouldn't assume anything given your condition. Yevon forbids the use of machina and we use machina. Ergo, Yevon forbids the Al-Bhed. We're not exactly welcome on the mainland. You'd get into trouble just being around us."

"You're exaggerating," Buddy said. "Spira isn't a nice place to be if you're an Al-Bhed. That's true, but Luca is different. It's got blitzball."

"How does blitz make it different?"

"Blitzball is the one thing that united all peoples of Spira," Rikku explained. "The Al-Bhed are treated as equals, but only for blitzball. Buddy of all people should know that it's the off season. The Al-Bhed are no more welcome during the off season than anywhere else in Spira."

"Yeah but there's a tournament coming up real soon. The Psyches are coming in. We'd only be early by a few days."

"Ignore him," Rikku insisted. "I'm telling you, you'd have a better chance of finding someone you know or joining a blitzball team if you're not seen hanging out with Al-Bhed."

Tidus didn't reply. What Rikku was saying made sense, as much as anything made sense to him. He didn't understand why the Al-Bhed her persecuted by Yevon because they used machina, but if he needed to stay away from them in order to be accepted in Luca, that made sense. Still, Rikku has been the only person he'd been able to confide in. Rikku was Tidus' only friend in Spira. If Zanarkand was really destroyed 1000 before as Riku said, that would make her his only friend in the world. He wasn't about to be dropped off with no clue where to go, not without a friend.

"Where will you go?" Tidus asked.

"Back Home," she replied.

"Where's that?"

"On our island. Since the Al-Bhed aren't welcome on the mainland, my father united the Al-Bhed and built a machina city in the middle of the desert. I was born there. It's a really amazing place."

"Why can't I go there?"

Rikku and Buddy exchanged quick glances, and now Tidus had become slightly worried. Rikku continued. "I was born in Home, but my father wasn't. He grew up in Luca, and he didn't like it. He thinks the Al-Bhed and the other peoples of Spira should stay separated. It best for everyone. Home is for the Al-Bhed and the Al-Bhed only. He'd kill me if I even told you where it was."

Tidus didn't reply to this. He turned back and watched the horizon grow brighter. As he looked out into the distance, a city began to rise up from the waters. In seconds, he could see the harbor as the ship advanced.

"I hope Brother remembers that we're only allowed to dock at number four," Rikku openly mused. The ship began to slow down as its docking position. Tidus clenched the railing as the ship jolted slightly as it made contact with the dock before finally setting at rest.

"We're going to wait a little bit before we can let you out," Rikku explained. "Yevon begrudgingly allows use to bring out machina ships into the harbor, but they'll be damned if we bring any contraband with us off the ship. The Al-Bhed are required to wait on the ship until Warrior Monks can be sent to inspect everyone that comes off the ship."

"Warrior Monks?"

"Yevon's personal army," Rikku replied disparagingly.

"Okay," Tidus replied. He wanted to ask more. What did a belief need a personal army for, anyways? He figured that question would just lead to an additional two questions, which, in turn, would lead to two more question each. It wasn't worth the effort, and none of it pertained to what Tidus wanted to do at that exact moment. "In the meantime, since it doesn't look like I'm getting off the ship in the near future, what do I have to do to get you to come with me to Luca?"

That Tidus even asked seemed to amuse Rikku. She smiled and stifled a little chuckle. "I'm not going. It's nothing against you, Tidus. Seriously, I would go if I didn't think it would cause you trouble to be seen with an Al-bhed. I want to go to Luca with you."

"You do?"

"Yeah." Rikku hesitated before continuing that thought. "Luca is an odd place, and I want to make sure that you make out alright." Tidus just looked at her to see if there was anything else she wanted to add to her answer. "You have an interesting story. It's only natural that I want to see how it turns out."

"So come with me."

"I don't want to influence how the story ends."

"You already have," he pointed out. "If it weren't for you, I'd be dead on the floor of some long forgotten ruin in the middle of the ocean. If it weren't for you, your brother might have thrown me overboard sooner. If it weren't for you, Sin would have dragged me into the water, and who knows what would have happened then. Whether you like it or not, my story is not my story anymore. This is our story now, Rikku."

Rikku didn't like that answer. She replied with a scoff and turned away. Tidus could plainly see the reason why it bugged her so much. It was scrawled in bold print on her countenance. Rikku really did want to see how the story ended, but she didn't want to be involved in the story. It was as if being a part of some adventure was too great of a responsibility for her. She would read about great adventures, and if she dared to, she would even imagine herself involved.

Now, however, Rikku had the opportunity to participate in an adventure that would be otherwise left untold. How could she possibly pass up such an opportunity? And for such a weak reason as the one she gave? So what if her presence would alter the course of the story? That's just what the story called for. If a human with no memory gets into trouble because his only friend and confidant is a teenage Al-bhed girl, then so be it.

She turned back to him. Tidus was lazily leaning on the edge and looking at her, as if he had been waiting for her to turn around and change her mind. "This is not my story," she replied. Tidus tried to hide his surprise. He really did think she wouldn't pass up this opportunity. She turned back around and returned down below.

It was at this juncture that Tidus remembered that Buddy was still on deck. "You want to come with me?" Tidus asked despondently.

"Would if I could," he replied with a sincerely cadence of disappointment in his voice. I'm sort of in the middle of something back Home. Plus, Brother is going to want my help on the machina we just activated at the ruins. Looks like you're going this one solo."

Buddy left him and returned below deck. Now alone, Tidus looked out at what he could see of Luca. The dock was nothing special. It didn't have all the technological advances that the docks back home in Zanarkand had, but Tidus was beginning to expect that. He craned his head up to get a better look of the building in front of him that all the docks appeared to be encircling. No other building even came close to its grandeur. It had to be the blitz stadium.

Tidus' admiration of the blitz stadium, pedestrian in form but nonetheless admirable, took all of his attention. He missed the arrival of the Warrior Monks in his peripheral vision and had to be snapped out of his trance by a loud and annoyed grunt. Tidus looked down and saw three men, two dressed in a white armor and a third with a beard dressed in red. The man in red was standing at the forefront and was motioning with his hands for Tidus to come down.

Tidus wasn't sure how the man expected him to get down. The distance from the deck to the ground below certainly was an easily jumpable distance, but he was certain there was some simpler way to get down that they were expecting. The man in red was getting annoyed and just started grunting and pointing in the general direction to Tidus' right. It dawned on Tidus as this point that the man wasn't talking because he assumed Tidus was an Al-bhed and wouldn't understand him if he spoke. He thought about ending the man's struggle, but watching him try to pantomime instructions while keeping his cool was amusing.

Tidus looked in the direction he was pointing and saw where the gangplank would come out and a button on the wall nearby that would activate it. Tidus simply pretended he didn't see it and just pointed in the same direction. The man in red kept pointing with an expression on his face as if to say, "Yes! There! This button right there! Press that button, you stupid heathen!"

Tidus just kept kept pantomiming ignorance. "This button?"

"Yes! Just press it already!"

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

"This one?"

"Yes!"

"This one right here?"

"Yes! Oh for the love of Yevon, press the button already!"

Tidus kept his index finger just inches from the button, and then suddenly withdraw his hand and shrugged, as if to say, "Sorry. I'm new here. I'm not allowed to touch anything without a supervisor present."

The man in red clearly had enough. He threw his hands up in frustration and walked away. His subordinated, momentarily unsure as to what they were expected to do, followed their commanding officer, leaving the dock deserted. Tidus was particularly pleased with himself, but realized that he probably wasn't going to get away with making fun of the guy.

"Well, if I'm on my own, I might as well get started." Tidus took a few steps back and gave himself a running start. At the ledge, he vaulted himself over the railing and landed softly on dry land. "Goodbye, Rikku," he said softly as he began to walk away from the ship and towards the blitzball stadium. "I wish I could have gotten the opportunity to know you better."

Tidus began to walk leisurely down the pathway and as he entered the next dock area, the area became more populated. Most looked like normal humans dressed in normal, albeit rural and basic, clothing. Okay, there was one huge blue, cat-like thing with a horn at the dock after that, but Tidus decided he would wait for another day to learn about a new race. Now, he just needed to find someone he knew.

It wasn't long before someone he recognized came around the corner, but it wasn't someone he was expecting to run into again. The man in red was without his subordinates, but he was no less furious at seeing Tidus off the ship without inspection. "Stop! Don't move!" he shouted as he began to run towards him.

"Yeah right," Tidus mumbled under his breath as he took off. Being the more athletic of the two by far, it was easy to outrun him. Tidus was leaping over boxes and around people at a graceful pace while the man in red continued to trip over his own feet. Tidus though he was getting away until his subordinates popped up in front of him. Tidus cut left and found himself in a square. He looked up and saw the entrance to the stadium at the top of the stairs. He climbed up, but another warrior monk awaited him at the top of the stairs. The man in red had caught up and waited for him at the bottom of the stairs.

"Game over, heathen," the man in red growled. "Now you can come the easy way or the hard way, but just so you know, I really love the hard way." The man began to climb the stairs and the remaining monks were closing in on him.

Then he heard a voice. "There you are!" Everyone looked as a spritely joyful teenage girl came skipping up the steps and latched on to Tidus' arm. The girl was dressed in green shorts and a light orange T-shirt. A pair of goggles were resting around her neck and her bright blonde hair was in a ponytail. Tidus couldn't believe that this was the girl hiding underneath that red jumpsuit.

"I told you to meet me at the cafe."

"Excuse me," the man in red said. "Do you know this man?"

"Of course. He's my boyfriend. We're here for the tournament. Tell him, Tidus."

The man in red looked squarely at Tidus, waiting for an answer. Rikku nudged him forcefully, pulling him out of his state of muteness. "Yeah. I'm her boyfriend. We're in town for the tournament."

The man in red stepped closer and looking deeply into Tidus' eyes. visibly upset at not seeing what he had expected to see. Angry, the man in red just stormed off. His subordinates quickly followed.

"That was a stupid thing you did!" Rikku shouted in a whisper. "A stranger in a strange land, and what's the first thing you do? Piss of the authorities! What is wrong with you? Don't tell me. You wanted me to come to your rescue. Now I have to stay. I'm right. Right?"

"No," Tidus replied, "but for the record, it did work."

Rikku just smiled and held back another chuckle. "Well, I guess I'm staying. Brother probably left, anyways. It's just as well. You said yourself. This is our story."

Tidus just smiled. Two two of them, from the top of the stairs, looked out at the rest of Luca without a clue what their next move was going to be.


End file.
